Hamas returns bodies of two more captives, says Israel violating ceasefire

The remains of 12 of the 28 Israeli captives who died successful Gaza person been returned to Israel, but Hamas says it faces challenges recovering each the bodies.

Hamas has turned implicit the remains of 2 much deceased Israeli captives from Gaza, the bureau of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced, arsenic the Palestinian radical accused Israel of continuing to perpetrate ceasefire violations and repudiating the commitments made to bid mediators.

“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the bodies of 2 hostages”, which were returned to Israeli information forces successful Gaza, Netanyahu’s bureau said successful a station connected the X societal media level aboriginal connected Sunday.

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The premier minister’s bureau said the families of the Israeli captives person been updated connected the instrumentality of the remains, though nary names person been released truthful far.

The bureau said the 2 bodies person been transferred to the Israeli National Centre of Forensic Medicine, and “upon completion of the recognition process, ceremonial notification volition beryllium delivered to the families”.

“The effort to instrumentality our hostages is ongoing and volition not cease until the past hostage is returned,” the premier minister’s bureau added.

With the handover precocious connected Saturday, Hamas has present returned the remains of 12 of the 28 captives who died successful Gaza, a cardinal request by Israel successful the week-old ceasefire woody to extremity the two-year war.

According to the deal, Hamas was to instrumentality each of the Israeli captives – some the surviving and the dormant – wrong 72 hours of its signing. In exchange, Israel was to merchandise 360 bodies of deceased Palestinians and immoderate 2,000 prisoners.

Hamas has said the wide devastation successful the Palestinian territory and the Israeli military’s continuing power of definite parts of Gaza person slowed the betterment of the bodies of deceased captives.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Palestinian authorities bash not person capable instrumentality to assistance with the hunt for captives’ bodies beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.

“It’s precise difficult, with betterment teams connected the crushed facing bonzer challenges. [They have] nary bulldozers, nary trucks, nary cranes and nary dense equipment… to velocity up the process and assistance with the betterment and instrumentality of bodies,” Mahmoud said.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, who is reporting from Amman, Jordan, due to the fact that Al Jazeera is banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, said that Netanyahu’s authorities has known “for immoderate time” that the recovery of bodies of captives would beryllium “an incredibly hard and daunting task”.

Netanyahu, however, has accused Hamas of not doing capable to instrumentality the remains of the 28 and that each of the bodies request to beryllium returned immediately, Salhut said.

“Until that happens, that’s erstwhile Israel is going to honour much of the commitments of the ceasefire, similar letting successful much humanitarian assistance, talking astir opening the Rafah borderline crossing,” she said.

Hospital workers transport the remains of a Palestinian captive released by Israel nether a Gaza ceasefire and captives speech woody to the morgue of Nasser Hospital successful Khan Younis, confederate Gaza, connected Saturday [Omar al-Qattaa/AFP]

For days, Hamas and Israel person traded blasted implicit violations of the US-mediated ceasefire.

On Saturday, Hamas accused the Netanyahu authorities of “fabricating flimsy pretexts” to not travel done connected its commitments to the bid deal, arsenic good arsenic denouncing Israel’s refusal to unfastened the Rafah crossing with Egypt arsenic “a blatant violation” of the agreement.

On Friday, Israeli forces killed 11 members of a azygous family, including 7 children, successful an onslaught eastbound of Gaza City.

The Palestinian Embassy successful Egypt announced earlier connected Saturday that the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for radical successful Gaza to permission and participate the enclave, would reopen connected Monday.

But Netanyahu said the borderline crossing would stay closed until Hamas hands implicit the bodies of each the deceased Israeli captives.

The transportation of humanitarian assistance into Gaza besides remains dilatory contempt the ceasefire deal.

On Saturday, the United Nations bureau for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it had capable humanitarian nutrient supplies to provender Gaza for 3 months, but trucks carrying the life-saving cargo are incapable to participate Gaza and are stuck successful warehouses successful Jordan and Egypt.

“We indispensable beryllium allowed to get each this assistance into Gaza without delay,” UNRWA said, adding that it besides has instrumentality to supply structure to arsenic galore arsenic 1.3 cardinal people.